A Princess of Mars is a
science fantasy novel by
Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first of his
Barsoom series. It was first serialized in the pulp magazine
All-Story Magazine in February–July, 1912. Full of swordplay and daring feats, the novel is considered a classic example of 20th-century
pulp fiction. It is also a seminal instance of the
planetary romance, a subgenre of science fantasy that became highly popular in the decades following its publication. Its early chapters also contain elements of the
Western. The story is set on
Mars, imagined as a dying planet with a harsh desert environment. This vision of Mars was based on the work of the astronomer
Percival Lowell, whose ideas were widely popularized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.